Tony Reinke: Lit!

Joan Didion “When I’m near the end of a book, I need to sleep in the same room with it.”

About 8 years ago I heard a friend of mine deliver a talk to college students. This talk was on how to watch movies (or any other forms of media) with a Christian worldview. He didn’t declare that all forms of media were off limits except those produced by Christians with a “Jesus, Man!” hurrah at the end of it. However, he did give some very specific pointers for how to watch media and engage with a lost culture by changing the habit of watching movies. It has changed how I watch movies (and I love movies).

This book has done the same for me in how I read books. I love to read. I usually have about 10 going at one time: fiction, non-fiction, autobiography, journals. Books for my personal life, for my hobbies, or for my job. All of these can be read using a Christian worldview – even if it is a book on how to style food for photography!

Tony Reinke, in Lit!, gives his readers tips on how to read. You may think we don’t need another book on this – but pick it up and you’ll see that this book is very helpful. Whether you like to read fiction or classic literature, the latest Max Lucado book or you would rather pick up Andreas Kostenberger’s latest New Testament commentary – Lit! will give you some guidelines on how to read them.

Gospel-Centered reading? You bet! Reinke even devotes a whole chapter in how our sin and the gospel affects our reading. Oh believe me, how true this is. Sin and our sinful hearts affect what we read and what affects us. We can live captured by these thoughts or we can pour our attention on Scripture and edifying books. But, even if we don’t ONLY read biblical books, or Christian books (which aren’t always helpful and gospel-centered or true) – sin and the gospel affects our reading.

“Faith in Jesus brings with it a critically important benefit for the Christian reader – discernment.” (pg 35).

Reinke shares personal stories and brings humor into this book. It is readable and thoroughly helpful.